public relations

Great music photography is essential for your press kit and promotional efforts, but having your artist photos at your fingertips and ready to go might help get you promo opportunities you weren’t expecting. Read more.

Beyond songwriting, the fact is visuals really matter, so press photos and all your visual material shouldn’t be an afterthought. Enticing photos, videos, album art, and graphic design will go a long way toward getting attention and will help to establish your brand and get people to pay attention and listen to your music. Read more.

A band press kit is an encapsulation of who you are as an artist. These days, of course, there are multiple options for your press kit, including venues to host an Electronic Press Kit. Not to mention that your website is really a press package with an endless bottom which you can fill with your most current content. Read more.

Most bands do a traditional media campaign (newspapers, magazines, radio), as well as a new media campaign (podcasts, music blogs, MP3s). Music publicity is not just compiling lists and following steps mechanically, it should be fun and is a chance to channel the same creativity you put into your music to build a buzz. Read more.

An important aspect of digital PR is developing and maintaining relationships. From the smallest local music blog to the biggest global music review sites, most content and support comes from nurturing relationships, because people are willing to support the people they like. A key to effective relationship management includes creating new content while nurturing the relationships that are developing. This can be done by focusing on social monitoring, social media content strategy, and creating a VIP experience. Read more.

Working with an established, professional publicity firm might be the ideal, but unless you have a few thousand dollars available, you may need to design your own music PR campaign. A self-propelled campaign can be effective if executed properly, which means effectively managing the Pre-, During-, and Post-PR phases. There are several pitfalls that can derail the success of a campaign. Read more.

As an independent musician, digital publicity can be a fantastic way to set yourself on a path towards success. But like much of digital marketing, the process and results can feel a bit nebulous if proper goals aren’t set in place. Setting goals for your publicity campaign can help you to do two critical things: 1. Hire the right kind of publicist, and 2. understand the value of the work. Read more.

Whatever your instrument or genre, as an independent musician, I bet you’ve probably spent time gazing at the arts section of your local newspaper or favorite music magazine and wondered, “How can I get there?” While talent, hard work, business chops, persistence, and luck have a great deal to do with it, there’s another tool that can help — a good publicist. Read more.

In business, return on investment – or ROI – traditionally translates to “How much money did we make on that promotion or venture?” This doesn’t translate so neatly to a social media campaign, or your general social media efforts, because at its heart, social media is a conversation tool, not a sales tool. So the question becomes: “If social media has no direct relationship to sales, how do I measure its ROI?” It will help if you start by defining realistic expectations of your social media campaigns so you can effectively measure the ROI of your social media efforts. Read more.

Just like traditional (print) media outlets, most bloggers and podcasters are looking to cover stories, brands, and products with credibility. Digital publicity is most certainly a two way street. Before you begin the outreach process to digital media makers, make sure you are: 1) Managing your targeted social media accounts with consistent content. 2) Engaging with your audience on a regular basis. Read more.

A great book can stick with you for a lifetime. A great movie can do the same. Why? Because of the connection that you make to the story. Storytelling can also be a powerful selling strategy, but looking at storytelling as simply a way to affect sales is really missing the bigger picture when it comes to publicity and public relations (PR) efforts. A well-crafted story woven into a press release, company bio, artist bio, or campaign video can also result in increased publicity, increased brand loyalty, and stronger engagement with your customers and prospects. Read more.

As I take people through the challenging self-discovery process, I’ve realized that a lot of indie music artists, at all stages of their careers, share a common issue: they are reluctant to celebrate success. They often feel uncomfortable announcing even the major milestones – like EP releases, show and tour announcements, notable press interviews – that are the product of their hard work, growth, and development. Read more.

For any product release, including a physical item such as a book, tech product, how-to video, CD, etc., an effective digital publicity campaign can be critical to your success. In any public relations effort, by maintaining consistency across all the digital channels you employ – including social media, the blogosphere, and your mailing list – you will not only promote your upcoming product, but the efforts in your pre- and post-release strategy can help build a stronger brand, grow your relevance and influence within your target market, and help to ensure the success of future product releases and promotions. Read more.